Amadeo Cadmus: The Young King and the Patient Uncle

On the throne of Aden sits a king who is younger than his own guards. His name is Amadeo Cadmus, and the rank-and-file guardsmen speak of him in a way they are not spoken of under orders.

"Things were really bad here in Aden right after the war—but thanks to the quick hand of His Majesty Amadeo, we managed to rise up like this. When I think that he's years younger than me, I can only say one thing: he's simply amazing."

Guard Bret, Goddard

The young sovereign has won the war, rebuilt the devastated country, and in the evenings, the guards whisper, he takes boat rides on Lake Narsell with Sir Castella—life at court seems to have returned to a peaceful rut. This is the stately picture of the kingdom. Now let's step a hundred paces away from the throne and listen to what they say there. Because this is the story of what a conspiracy looks like before it breaks out.

A Crack Under the Throne: The Revolt in Dion

The war with Gracia was not the beginning of all the current troubles - it was won: the wise king ordered a castle to be built in the west in advance, and walls of Gludio withstood the blow. It was started by something that the court doesn't like to remember: several years ago, a fire broke out in the lands of Dion bloody peasant uprisingThe negotiations failed, and the local lord threw knights at his own peasants.

And then the unheard-of happened: the order split. The older knights, loyal to their oath, carried out the feudal lord's orders. But the younger ones followed their conscience—and sided with the peasants, against their own kind. Grand Master Sedrick, the paladins' mentor, to this day begins his parting words with this story to every knight upon entering the Order. third initiation.

"Each side believed itself to be right. And I still wonder if either side was right. Wasn't each knight simply defending their own pride? True justice does not exist. Paladin or Dark Avenger—you must choose and defend your choice with conviction!"

Grand Master Cedrick - for third-career applicants

The wounds of that schism have never healed. The kingdom's best intelligence officer, Alex—the king's personal spy and messenger during the war—broke rank after the massacre of the peasants: "I swore not to stand by while a hypocritical aristocrat crushes the innocent," and now he's training the Floran militia because Dion's army isn't coming to defend the village. Knight Felix of Dion even fled with his lover when the rebellion led to persecution of the knights themselves. And in Ghiran, Sir Kristof Rodemai greets the powerful clans with the same speech: royal power "has been undermined to the point of losing control, rebellions are breaking out everywhere—and now evil spirits are stirring... grow stronger, and let's change this world together."

When such words are heard in the squares of the commercial capital, it means that the time of conspirators has come.

The King's uncle

The most patient of them bears a family name that is respected in Aden. The Athebaldt family is the second people in the kingdom: Duke Athebaldt once reconciled the crown with the Hunters' Union after a three-month siege of their village; his descendant, Aren Athebalt, is still the guildmaster of the Hunters' Village. And Sir Gustaf Athebaldt, a knight of the royal bodyguard, is King Amadeo's uncle, and according to the order of succession, his right to the throne is almost flawless.

Gustav doesn't hide in basements. He lays out his program to practically anyone he meets, with the mournful expression of an old servant of the fatherland who is "soon to retire."

"The future of this country cannot be entrusted to either kings or lords. The lords are forever preoccupied with their own greed, while the king turns his back on the people's hardships... Yes, we may have to endure hellish wars and hardships—but order in the realm must be restored."

Sir Gustaf Athebaldt, Knight of the Royal Bodyguard

It sounds almost noble—until you discover what lies behind the words. Gustav offers the young, ambitious clans, the "new blood," an alliance against the "old royal circle" and promises to be their support in the new era. And the tasks he gives them are folded into an arsenal: trusted men buy and transport dragon eggs - In Valley of the Dragons there are rumors about mercenary brothers, “hired by the human nobility to look for something there”; Black Anvil dwarves Colossal siege engines have been ordered, and Gustav has long been paying for their research into the science of giants - right up to the experiments of the unrecognized master Baltazar on a new type of golem.

The courtiers see it. Sir Eric Rodemai of the Aden castle guard speaks of the king's uncle without the courtly equivocations.

"He feigns indifference to power to deflect suspicion, but in reality, he secretly manipulates numerous cliques and, by eroding the king's power, prepares to ultimately seize the throne. The collected dragon eggs will go toward his personal dragon army, and the colossal siege weapons commissioned from the dwarves will serve his own ends... He is a cunning and fearsome schemer."

Sir Eric Rodemai, Aden Castle Guard

Swords in the Swamp

There's an image in this story that's worth all the court reports. Far from the capital, in the smoking Scorching Marshes, the undead roam, which the hunters call judges of the swampThese are the souls of bodyguards who died heroically defending their king in a long-ago war, and in their dead hands they still clutch Swords of Cadmus, the blades of the royal guard. The Hunters' Guild pays for each returned sword.

Consider the symmetry that history itself has created: the old guard, who died for the crown, stands at attention even after death—in the ashes, among the undead. Meanwhile, the king's living bodyguard, his own blood, is trading in the throne he swore to protect.

A conspiracy that has not yet happened

No one knows how it will all end: the chronicles of Aden stand frozen in this very moment. The storm hasn't broken; it's gathering. The young king is astonishing—but young; the uncle is old—but patient, and patience has dragon eggs, siege engines, and a queue of ambitious clans vying for control of their gold. Aden has grown accustomed to fearing dragons, demons, and the seals on the doors of the goddess of death. But the most dangerous creature of this era may not be sleeping in any lair. It stands guard at the very throne, bears the name of the peacekeepers, and sincerely, to the point of tears, worries about the future of the nation.